An inquiry by the Australian Supreme Court has proposed new powers to officers at immigration centers, granting them right to resort to violence, should they find it necessary, according to a former Victoria supreme court judge.
Following a Senate hearing of an amendment to the new migration bill Stephen Charles SC, who was the Victoria court of appeal judge until 2006, told the Guardian on Thursday that it would “inevitably encourage violence by guards against asylum seekers” by considerably expand their powers.
The new powers, applying to immigration officers, would let them use “reasonable force against any person” to maintain order and security, which in fact could lead to “beating asylum seekers to death.” The immunity from civil and criminal liability will include private contractors – people, who are less trained than police officers.
“Time and again police in the United States have been acquitted in circumstances such as these,” Charles said. “These amendments to the Migration Act will in effect authorize guards to beat asylum seekers to death on the basis they reasonably believe it is necessary … to do so.”
Australia keeps its asylum seekers at the Nauru refugee detention center, and human rights violations including rape and physical abuse have been going on since November 2013. Reports of harsh conditions at the center, consisting of two fenced-off tent camps with up to 1,200 detainees, have been recently passed to the Australian government. Full story...
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Following a Senate hearing of an amendment to the new migration bill Stephen Charles SC, who was the Victoria court of appeal judge until 2006, told the Guardian on Thursday that it would “inevitably encourage violence by guards against asylum seekers” by considerably expand their powers.
The new powers, applying to immigration officers, would let them use “reasonable force against any person” to maintain order and security, which in fact could lead to “beating asylum seekers to death.” The immunity from civil and criminal liability will include private contractors – people, who are less trained than police officers.
“Time and again police in the United States have been acquitted in circumstances such as these,” Charles said. “These amendments to the Migration Act will in effect authorize guards to beat asylum seekers to death on the basis they reasonably believe it is necessary … to do so.”
Australia keeps its asylum seekers at the Nauru refugee detention center, and human rights violations including rape and physical abuse have been going on since November 2013. Reports of harsh conditions at the center, consisting of two fenced-off tent camps with up to 1,200 detainees, have been recently passed to the Australian government. Full story...
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